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Israeli and Palestinian national narratives: national and individual constructions, social suffering narratives, and everyday performances

ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN NATIONAL NARRATIVES: NATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL CONSTRUCTIONS, SOCIAL SUFFERING NARRATIVES, AND EVERYDAY PERFORMANCES
by
Steven Neil Rousso-Schindler
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY)
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Steven Neil Rousso-Schindler

This dissertation examines different processes of constructing, conveying, and the personal assimilation of Israeli and Palestinian narratives of the nation. I depart from other scholars who employ the term "national narratives" and use "narratives of the nation" as a way to emphasize both the national and literary components of these national stories. Narratives of the nation are constructed by a wide variety of nation people and are not simply narrated by the state for its own purposes, as is often implied by scholars. Narratives of the nation are the many political, economic, social and religious stories that nations tell about themselves. By incorporating narrative theory and tracing the process of narrative construction, I argue that narratives of the nation act similarly to what we consider to be more conventional narratives. Narratives of the nation are aesthetic stories that are suspenseful, driven forward by a plot, and have a moral to the story. The first part of this dissertation traces in the Israeli media how the Israeli nation narrates the Jewish-Israeli and Palestinian population ratio. This "demography" narrative is so fundamental that if Jewish-Israelis were to comprise less than sixty percent of the total population in Israel, the Israeli nation would collapse as it is presently constructed. The next part of my dissertation reveals a number of the power dynamics between Israelis and Palestinians that are instrumental in shaping the narrative construction process at the individual level in an Israeli Hebrew immersion course called an ulpan. The main argument put forward is that a history of unequal power relations between Palestinians and Israelis has led to a silencing of Palestinians during the narrative construction process in the classroom. Once an everyday performance of narratives of the nation begins, newly formed narratives can emerge.; These narratives provide belief structures for participants that can impact their personal beliefs about narratives of the nation. Finally, I consider how social suffering experiences in Palestine can impact Palestinian and Israeli narratives of the nation. Most importantly, Israel must narrate Palestinian social suffering experiences in a way that reinforces the idea that it has a moral army.

ISRAELI AND PALESTINIAN NATIONAL NARRATIVES: NATIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL CONSTRUCTIONS, SOCIAL SUFFERING NARRATIVES, AND EVERYDAY PERFORMANCES
by
Steven Neil Rousso-Schindler
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
(SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY)
May 2007
Copyright 2007 Steven Neil Rousso-Schindler